


What Happens Between Fear and Forgiveness

by the_lionness



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Battle of Fairy Tail, F/M, One True Pairing, Post-Battle of Fairy Tail, Romance, fairy tail - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-18
Updated: 2019-08-18
Packaged: 2020-09-06 22:29:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,530
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20298976
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_lionness/pseuds/the_lionness
Summary: A GaLe drabble set to after the Battle of Fairy Tail arc.





	What Happens Between Fear and Forgiveness

What Happens Between and the Fear and Forgiveness

Levy’s forte would never be mathematics, but she didn’t need to be an expert at numbers to know that she had spent the early part of the morning asking herself the same question over a hundred times:

“What am I doing here?”

_Here_ was the guild. And _here_ was also the staircase leading up to the second floor. The same floor where Mira-chan had mention seeing Gajeel Redfox, the Iron Dragon Slayer, make a beeline for the moment he had clambered into Fairy Tail, discharged from the hospital yet still recuperating from his injuries.

Days had passed since what everyone was now calling “The Battle of Fairy Tale.” Despite all of Erza-san and Mira-chan’s collective efforts, word of the guild’s infighting had spread throughout Magnolia. News of the leak wasn’t so farfetched; with all that had taken throughout the town and the sheer spectacle of Laxus’ Thunder Palace lacrima, it would have been impossible not to notice. Not only that—the delay of Fantasia and the hospitalization of half the guild, including Erza-san herself, Natsu…and Gajeel. 

She had gone with Lu-chan, Happy and Gray to Magnolia Hospital the following day, although she hadn’t mentioned any ulterior motives. Still it was pretty easy to slip away unnoticed when Team Natsu got up to their usual antics—face-offs between Gray and Natsu; Lu-chan’s tears over her rent’s impending due date and Happy’s childish teasing at the celestial mage’s ongoing perdicament; and Erza-san’s vacillations between quelling and causing conflicts—and hospital staff rushed to get them out of the building lest everything crumbled to dust in their wake.

She had gone to the nurses’ station to nervously, timidly, inquire about where Gajeel was staying, only to learn that he had voluntarily left the day before without trouble.

Levy had only caught a glimpse of him during the parade, and now, after not seeing him for three days, here she was at the foot of the stairs to the second floor.

Trembling, more like it. 

And sweating. 

“What am I doing?”

Well, she was building the courage to go see the Iron Dragon Slayer residing on the second floor.

But, _why_ was she doing it? 

Levy couldn’t answer that. She couldn’t even say it out loud. She had thoughts—feelings—about Gajeel Redfox. And said thoughts and feelings were…complicated. 

There was still fear. A fear that was palpable, a fear that was worse than her fear of the dark. After all, scary things were born from the dark, and Gajeel had been the scariest of all. A bogeyman that had snuck up on Team Shadowgear before they had known what was happening and far too late for them to defend themselves from the onslaught of his attack. Levy could still remember the impact of his fists on her body; his nails, like talons, scratching her skin and ripping her clothing; and the cool bite of his metal as he nailed her to the tree in the square.

She had been the last one he had caught, which is why she alone had bore the mark of Phantom Lord on her skin. 

Her fingers fell to her stomach where that big, dark mark had been branded on her. It had been gone, long gone thanks to Reedus. But still. When she awoke in the dead of night in a cold sweat with the low lights of her lacrima dancing the spines of her books and what felt like the same nightmare just out of the reach of her memories, her fingers always seemed able to trace its outline. 

There was a fear in the way she found herself moving through the guildhall now. With Gajeel’s entry into Fairy Tale and his movements around the bar, she had taken care to make sure that her footsteps made a wide dearth around him. If he walked into the guild, she ducked behind the closest table or hallway corner. If he made his way to the bulletin board in search for another job, she made her way outside. And when he had been on stage, crooning under the spotlight, she had retreated to the library for sanctuary. Anything to avoid his red, pinprick eyes finding her. 

_Anything_ to make herself unnoticeable to him. 

The sound of high-pitched, hiccupy breaths reached her ears. Who _was_ that?  
  
Oh. It was her. _She_ was the one breathing like that. 

Her hand pressed against the stair rail and she willed herself to take calmer breaths. To be strong.

Her eyes slipped closed. 

_“Promise us that you’ll steer clear of Redfox, Levy.”_ Jet’s words of warning bubbled up from her memories. _“He may’ve helped Natsu beat Laxus, but _we_,”_ he gestured to the three of them in hospital room, his voice punctuated by the beeps and hums of machinery,_ “don’t owe him anything.”_

That’s what he had said, but Levy had caught the hitch in his throat when he said it. Neither she nor Droy had commented on it though. Jet wasn’t _wrong_— 

And yet… 

And yet, he had endured their attacks on him, attacks that he would have easily deflected and reciprocated had their guild marks been different. 

And there was the memory of his beaten and burning body standing before her, gasping for breath as blood trickled down his mouth. Bearing the brunt of Laxus’ attack meant for her, an attack that would have certainly killed her.

And his voice, deep and low in her ears. _“…You’re incredible you know…” _

She could feel her cheeks warming up at the mere thought of his words.

And so…and so, she opened her eyes, calmed her heart and took the first steps upstairs.

Gajeel didn’t know her name, because her name wasn’t important to his mission. Ivan had given him the list of major players, a list he had then turned over to Makarov.

But he had picked up her scent: books, ink, and paper. A library.

So different from everything else that usually wafted under his nose whenever he came into this fuckin guildhall—beer and hard liquor; sweat from people walking in and out all the time; dust kicked up from all their stupid, petty brawls; cigar smoke; cooked food. The only things that were missing today were rainwater—Juvia’s smell—and, more invasively, Salamander’s smell of campfire. 

He’d been at Fairy Tail longer than he had expected. He had caught her staring at him from across the guildhall more times than he could count. And he had almost gotten used to the scent of her fear under that all that library smell.

He was the cause, of course: he had hurt her, scarred her, and scared her. What he had done to _her_, specifically, was half the reason for the others’ stares and hostility. And he while didn’t spare any fucks about what the rest of the guild thought about him, he’d thought about what he’d done to her more times than he could count. That little squeak of fear she made from across the room? That shit made his guts squirm. 

But, suddenly, here she was. Without her stooges and _starin_ at him with her wide, brown eyes. 

And no scent of fear. 

The line of studs over his left eye rose slightly as he took her in. This tiny woman—this _shrimp _of a woman if there ever was one. She’d been talkin to herself down there, right? Askin questions? 

Well, he had a question for her, too: “What are you doing here.” Up here. Here around him? 

He hadn’t been expecting the change, the ramrod-straight posture, but all of a sudden, she was a half-inch taller.

He hadn't been expecting for her to bow towards him either.

And_ definitely_ hadn’t been expecting words of praise to come outta her mouth.

But like with everything else, there they were suddenly there in front of him.

“I just, wanted to say, thank you for helping save our nakama.”

Yet, here she was offering them to him. Words of thanks. And those other words, _our nakama_. Her nakama. And maybe for the first time since he had stepped foot here, _his _nakama. 

Maybe _that’s_ why he had been surprised. And only mumbled, “Wasn’t nothin’,” in reply to her bright smile. Because she when stopped bowing, there on her face was the _brightest_ smile.

It wasn’t like time slowed down when she turned from him and went back downstairs, but it was a moment of time that had finished way sooner than he had anticipated.

He would go back to minding his fucking business, but not before deciding to make it a point to learn that shrimp’s name before he spoke to her next time.

* * *

_I’ve wanted to write a GaLe story for a while. Re-reading _Fairy Tail_ and_ Fairy Tail: 100 Year Quest_ gave me a lot to work with._ _Their dynamic is something I don’t think I’ve seen a lot: guy hurts girl; girl forgives guy; guy and girl fall in love with each other. There’s such a big gap in their storyline, it was only natural for me to want to step in and fill in the blanks._


End file.
